Because the Padres and Nationals had been negotiating the blockbuster Juan Soto commerce prematurely of the 2022 commerce deadline, the Nats had been in a position to receive such top-tier younger skills as C.J. Abrams, James Wooden, and MacKenzie Gore as a part of the six-player commerce package deal. One participant Washington didn’t land was Jackson Merrill, although Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the Nationals requested about Merrill as a part of the commerce talks.
Although Merrill was the twenty seventh general choose of the 2021 draft, his prospect inventory didn’t actually begin to take off till he began to publish huge numbers for the Padres’ rookie league and A-ball associates in the course of the 2022 season. Actually, accidents restricted Merrill to solely 25 video games in 2022 on the time of the Soto commerce, so the Nationals weren’t working off quite a lot of scouting info once they checked into Merrill’s attainable availability. Although the Friars gave up rather a lot to deliver Soto to San Diego, it appears like they made a canny transfer in preserving Merrill, as his super rookie season helped lead the Padres to the NLDS this season. Merrill hit .292/.326/.500 with 24 house runs over 593 plate appearances, and (much more remarkably) performed sturdy protection as San Diego’s on a regular basis middle fielder regardless of by no means earlier than enjoying middle throughout his professional profession.
Another gadgets from round baseball…
- Sacramento’s Sutter Well being Park will stay a natural-grass stadium when the Athletics start play subsequent season, a league spokesperson advised the media (together with The Athletic’s Evan Drellich). Because the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate will proceed sharing the ballpark with the A’s, the preliminary concept was to put in a synthetic floor for 2025 and past, as a grass subject will take fairly a little bit of wear-and-tear from two full schedules’ price of video games. Nevertheless, gamers nonetheless most popular even a beaten-up grass floor to turf, as enjoying on a synthetic floor outside in California would’ve routinely raised on-field temperatures to properly over 100 levels Fahrenheit, even for some evening video games. “In mild of the gamers’ clear choice for pure grass, and after weighing with the MLBPA the potential dangers and advantages of sustaining pure grass versus changing the enjoying floor with artificial turf, all of the events are aligned in shifting ahead with a pure grass subject for Opening Day 2025,” the spokesperson mentioned.
- In different stadium information, the Rays’ quick touchdown spot isn’t but clear because the membership continues to evaluate how badly Tropicana Discipline was broken by Hurricane Milton. Amidst hypothesis that the Rays may no less than open the 2025 season in any variety of completely different cities, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made it clear in an interview on the Varsity podcast that the league’s choice is to maintain the Rays within the Tampa/St. Pete space. “The simplest factor is all the time to remain out there the place the golf equipment are anchored, if we will handle it,” Manfred mentioned, by way of Tropicana Discipline, “we’re hopeful…the repairs will be carried out in a means that permits them to renew enjoying.” That mentioned, Manfred is conscious of the “complication” of how town may balk at a big restore invoice for a stadium that may quickly be deserted solely, because the Rays’ new ballpark is slated to be prepared for Opening Day 2028. (Hat tip to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Instances.)
